Penance
by Libby16
Summary: A scream; a cannon shot; I cower deeper into the cave that provides a safe haven. That was a joke; a safe haven. My name is Thalia Snow – granddaughter of President Coriolanus Snow, and I am a tribute to The Capitol Hunger Games.


A trickle of water created a light echo off the cave walls; the sound of a train's whistle in the distance; a scream; a cannon shot; I cower deeper into the cave that provides a safe haven. That was a joke; a safe haven. There was no safe haven in these twisted games. My name is Thalia Snow – granddaughter of President Coriolanus Snow, and I am a tribute to The Capitol Hunger Games.

"What is it Thalia?" My ally asked, rousing from the slumber he had been in.

"Another dead," I replied in a deadpan voice.

"Who do you think it could be this time?" He sighed, ruffling his green hair.

"The train could have taken out Ariadne, or the mine explosion Athamas," I said.

"What makes you say that?" He moved closer to me.

"I heard the train whistle and then a scream," I said.

"It couldn't have been the train then. It would have come out so fast no one would have even had time to scream. It must have been the mines exploding. How many are left?" He asked.

"Including us," I counted on my fingers, "seven; six now that one has died."

"Me, you, Ariadne, Athamas, Pholos, Chrysanthe, and Semele. One is dead," he listed the remaining tributes.

I said nothing in reply as I listened to the rain. It would only be a matter of minutes before the mines exploded in another part of the arena; it was a mystery where they would strike next, but nothing could be done to stop them. Sometimes it was hard to distinguish the difference between the mines and a cannon; one could only know for sure when the images of the fallen were cast into the night sky.

Somewhere in this perverse arena a cornucopia stayed firmly planted despite all the chaos ringing around. Somewhere near the cornucopia was a makeshift ocean, filled with toxins, the tidal roar of a tidal wave could be heard every hour on the hour. Off in the distance, a large factory spit out fireballs onto sporadic locations in the arena. They were all twisted jokes to The Capitol tributes; a small token of every District of Panem was added into the arena to further torture us. The explosive mines were a tribute to District 12, the ocean 4, the factory 8, the train 6, falling trees from 7, and many others that my ally and I hadn't yet had the misfortune of stumbling upon.

In punishment for the way The Capitol has 'mistreated' the Districts in the past with The Hunger Games, we were now forced into the arena ourselves. It wasn't our fault the Districts revolted in the first place all those years ago; they were ungrateful to the generosity of The Capitol. We offered them peacekeepers, food, and their own shelter – all we asked in return was that they worked and supplied us in The Capitol. After The Capitol fell to the rebels, twenty four children from The Capitol were offered to the final Hunger Games in penance for the way we 'mistreated' them; a symbolic end to the war.

A shrill shriek pierced my ears from a short distance away from the cave. I clutched my hand around the scabbard I had escaped the bloodbath of the cornucopia with and rushed to the mouth of the cave. "Thalia, wait!" Perseus called after me. I ignored him; where there was a shriek there was a dying tribute, and where there was a dying tribute there was more than likely the one who had dealt the lethal blow. Perhaps I could take these games from seven to five. I had no hopes of winning, but I would at least make the deaths of my fellow Capitol friends quick and painless for them; we were all in here to die anyways.

"Rue! Rue!" a voice echoed through the eerie woods. I stumbled through a thicket of bushes in time to see a twelve year old girl with dark hair lying in the arms of another one who was singing a lullaby: Katniss Everdeen. I could only stare in shock at the lifelike scene in front of me. It was one that haunted the minds of every Capitol citizen for three years, one we watched over like a movie in our houses when we would get together with acquaintances and chatter aimlessly. It was a sad scene, but it added so much drama to the 74th annual Hunger Games, a drama so compelling it enhanced the quality of the games tenfold; I loved this scene. When the lullaby had ended, and the slight girl was dead, Katniss's head darted upwards to look me. In a fiery motion, she transformed into the mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion. Her eyes glowed like the embers of a dying fire as her face became dark and forbidding. "You," she pointed towards me, "you have done this. You are responsible for the death of this innocent child!" She spread her wings then and came towards me in a flash she turned from the innocent girl The Capitol swooned over after her victory in the 74th Hunger Games, to a vicious assassin. I raised the scabbard defensively over my head, ready to strike – she suddenly disappeared in a mass of flames, leaving me alone to stare down at the dead girl on the ground. She suddenly became lifelike and began to sing the lullaby that had been sung to her. It was enough to drive me insane as I tore through the bushes once more and tried to find the sanctuary of the cave Perseus and I had found refuge in.

I bumped into him when I was half of the way back, a loaded crossbow was tucked under his arm. "That was a dumbass move, Thalia! You could have been killed!" He hugged me close.

"I will be soon anyway," I muffled into his ragged shirt.

"Don't you talk like that; I'm going to see to it that you leave this arena, _alive_," he pushed me away to study me. The blue dye of his skin had already begun to fade from the two weeks he had spent leaving it untainted.

"Perseus, you and I both know I won't leave this arena alive. They rigged the drawing to make sure I was in this arena just because I'm President Snow's granddaughter. It's the perfect insult to see me dead. They're doing anything and everything they can to kill me off," I told him. We both knew it was the truth. Though the drawings were public and showed no signs of being partial to any particular person to enter the games, it was a well-known fact that rigging the games would relatively easy to do.

"Then won't it be the perfect insult to the rebels to see you leave this arena alive?" He countered. I stayed mute as I knew my impending death could come at any second. When it was clear I wouldn't respond he said, "So who was it that died anyway?"

"Rue," I said after a moment.

"Rue? The little girl from the 74th Hunger Games?"

"Yes; it was a hologram, a very real hologram. It was another way to psychologically damage us. If I had been there a second longer I probably would have been driven to the brink of insanity," I said.

"Aren't we all a little insane here?" He chuckled lightly. I had no other choice but to laugh; laughing was a rare treat within the past few months. What with the rebellion and The Capitol falling, then there was my grandfather's public death, and now I was a tribute to The Hunger Games. There had been little time for laughter, and it proved the perfect release now. "Was Katniss there?" He asked.

"Yes," I said and descriibed the details of that past event.

"That probably wasn't Katniss saying that; they probably edited her voice in a sound studio from all the footage they have of her. I just can't imagine her agreeing to something like that, especially with her sister's death," he said.

I thought a moment before answering, "There's no guarantee of what Katniss Everdeen would do."

"Come on, don't think that way. You're not living up to your namesake, Thalia," Perseus smirked at me.

Thalia – good cheer. In ancient Grecian times, where the citizens of The Capitol's names are derived from, they believed in several high deities – three of which being the Graces. Aglaia, splendor; Eurosyne, mirth; and Thalia, good cheer. It was a sick joke now. I was once the cherub face of Panem, the face that every mother wished their child had; that is until Primrose Everdeen snatched the title away from me when Katniss volunteered for her at the reaping. I was long forgotten as the precious grandchild of President Snow; I was no longer recognized to bring good cheer to The Capitol. Now I was thrown into this Godforsaken arena where there was no trace of happiness, only horror, mind tricks, and imminent death lurking around every corner. "It's kind of hard to right now," I said sourly.

We made our way silently back to the cave. "Perseus," I said, "there's 7 of us left. They won't let us stay here very long. They'll want blood soon…" I trailed off.

"There was already a death today, that should be enough to satiate them," he said.

"But what about tomorrow? Or the day after that? I'm going to die soon and I know that. The wait itself is bound to kill me if another tribute doesn't," I said, slightly complaining.

"Thalia, how many have you killed?"

"Three," I answered after a moment, "but I only did it so some other horror wouldn't take them in a much more violent way. I made sure they didn't feel a thing."

"Exactly; I've only killed in cold blood. You have goodness in your heart, Thalia; something the gamemakers didn't take into account," he said.

"I picture the people I kill as Rue, the one from three Hunger Games ago. I take pity on them," I said, I knew then that every television set in Panem was set onto us. I hope they enjoyed my shaved aqua hair; my insanity filled eyes; my blood caked skin. The rebels had taken every measure possible to humiliate me. They didn't know just how fruitless their attempt had been; unlike the other citizens of The Capitol, it wasn't a bother to me that my hair had been shaved. Despite their preconceptions of my vanity, my appearance was usually far down on my list of priorities.

Perseus knew that we were being visible to the world and in act of defiance against the rebels that overthrew The Capitol said, "I pretend they're all sorts of the rebels. The first was President Coin. The second was Plutarch Heavensbee – that bastard traitor. So on and so on until the fifth and most recent was Katniss Everdeen." It was dead silent in the cave.

Perseus had just professed his death wish.

He embraced his death; if he were to die he wouldn't go down without a fight – metaphorical or literal. It was then that I decided that Perseus had to win. I could only imagine the chaos that would unfold if the one who so openly admitted his hatred to the rebels were to win; it would have completely defeated the purpose of these games. My death was imminent, but I would try to get Perseus out of here alive.

"We need a plan," I said.

"For what?"

"Like I said: they'll be getting bored with us; let's give them some action," I smiled lightly.

"I like where this is going," He said inching closer to me as I whispered my plan into his ear; it would remain a mystery to all of Panem until it was show time.

**()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()**

I stood on the roof of the factory which had been surprisingly easy to get to. Another tribute had died along the way here, and we barely dodged a mine explosion, but I was here and strangely enough alive.

"Thalia?" I whipped my head around to see Ariadne shrinking into a corner on the roof. "It's okay, you can kill me," she looked downward crestfallen.

"Ariadne, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I was using this factory as a hideout, Pholos and I that is. It's turned out to be a hell house; he died in there earlier today," she admitted timidly.

"What happened?"

"Images…horrible images being cast in front of you. So lifelike…so real…"

"Were they of Katniss Everdeen?" I asked acridly.

"Yeah…it was of last year's Quarter Quell, when Wiress was killed. Katniss turned into the mockingjay and flew towards me, it was horrible Thalia!" She sobbed for a moment, and I didn't interrupt. "After that the factory came to life. Tracker jacker's began buzzing everywhere; I somehow made it out without a sting, but Pholos…" she continued crying. "Please, Thalia. I have nothing to go back after these games, both my parents are dead and I'll never be able to get the images out of my mind. Please, just make it quick…" She looked so meek, so childlike, so pitiful. She was a crumpled mess of a girl, and if she made it home from these games she would never be fully human.

"I'm so sorry Ariadne," I said. Imagining a small dying Rue, I raised my scabbard high and decapitated Ariadne; making sure it was as quick and painless as possible. A cannon shot to signal her death; five remained in the games. If our plan succeeded then the games would be finished today, and Perseus would be crowned victor.

An explosion to the east signaled the beginning. Perseus and I thought we had the explosion pattern nailed to a T, and that with just the right trigger we could control it. Perseus was to send a fellow tribute on a wild goose chase through the mountain in the East and hopefully they would trigger an explosion. From there I could hopefully examine the pattern that they continued in; because mines never exploded solo. When one exploded, another would follow suit; if we were lucky we would detonate the source and cause every other to explode.

"Thalia!" I heard a voice call below me. Peeping over the edge of the factory, I looked down to see Perseus in all his emerald haired glory.

"What the hell are you doing here! You're supposed to be in the mountain, setting off the mine!" I shouted to him.

"That wasn't me up there," he said as another cannon shot echoed through the arena; four were left in the arena. "We were wrong! That wasn't the epicenter of the mines, the train is!"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Wherever the train travels, it causes a chain reaction with the bombs. I was barely to escape from the beach!

"What were you on the beach for?" I called incredulously; it felt like he was talking in riddles

"It doesn't matter, but you'll never believe who's conducting the train," he paused a moment, "Chrysanthe and Semele."

"How did they get on? It's too fast," I said.

"I don't know, but they're the only two left other than us. If they have control over the train, then they have access to every point in the arena and can easily run us over if they find us," he said.

"This makes no sense…" I trailed off as a train whistle drew nearer and nearer. "Perseus move! Get up here now!"

He didn't hesitate a moment before searching the perimeter for the ladder I had used as an access point. The train missed him by a hair as he ascended to the roof. The long train was so unlike the others that pulled into Capitol stations; it was ancient metal and rusted. Though the stopping speed was no different than those of The Capitol, it eased along the side of the factory before coming to a complete stop.

Perseus was now by my side, hatchet clutched tight in his hand. I held my scabbard a little bit above him in a defensive position. This was it; this was where the games ended, where I would die.

A hatch door popped open on the top of the train and two pink haired girls poked their heads out of the top. "Well will you look at that, Semele; it's poor little Thalia and Perseus, how cute," taunted Chrysanthe.

Semele wasted no time hopping through the hatch door and standing on the roof of the train. No one from The Capitol was particularly skilled in weaponry – there was no need to be, but Semele was somehow a sure shot with the bow and arrow. I raised my scabbard higher as she shot an arrow through the air; I had no defense against the flying arrow, I could only hope to somehow deflect it with my blade. A satisfying clang noted that I had been successful. I was sure the rebels were disappointed in the rather anticlimactic way it clattered at my feet. Chrysanthe laughed wickedly, "So you think you've got us corned just because you can deflect a little arrow? We'll show you how to play these games!"

Semele gave a final smirk to Chrysanthe as she raced along the top of the train to find the ladder Perseus and I had both used. Chrysanthe reached into her tattered jacket to unveil two long daggers. Gripping the hilts tightly, she didn't hesitate before using it to scale the wall of the factory. Before Perseus and I could register what was happening, they had joined us on the rooftop. The two pink haired girls stood side-by-side in a symbol of their unification. But they both knew it wouldn't last for long; if they somehow managed to kill both Perseus and I, their alliance would be broken and all traces of their former friendship would diminish in a battle for life. The seconds ticked by in awkward silence. Chrysanthe was the one to break it, "I hope you've said your goodbyes!" she said and lunged for me, the dagger tip looking very sharp as it glistened in the muted sunlight.

Instinct screamed at me to run, but I stayed put; I would die, Perseus would somehow kill Semele and Chrysanthe, I had seen his fighting and the two of them combined were no match for him. He would be crowned victor, that was the way things were always meant to be. My plans were foiled as Perseus leaped in front of me to take the full impact of the blade in his torso.

Perhaps I was a bit of a mule, but in that moment I was so shell-shocked it was impossible to move. Perseus glanced behind slightly to stare me straight in the eye. The message was clear: Fight. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. Seeing that I wasn't going to move, he lurched forward with his hatchet despite the fatal wound in his abdomen. Semele was a second too late to see the weapon being aimed at her as it lodged itself into her left arm. She let out a shriek of pain and fell to her knees. Without hesitating, Perseus took the hatchet from her arm and began mutilating the girl. I couldn't find it within myself to watch, but there was no doubt that Semele was being beaten into a bloodied pulp. A cannon sounded, but Perseus continued to beat the fallen girl until he himself collapsed from his wound.

"Perseus!" I screamed as he fell to the ground in a twitching heap. "You _stupid_ boy!" I ran forward to him, to say goodbye. But Chrysanthe had other plans as she lunged forward to strike me, "Wait!" I screamed, and to my surprise, she stopped. "At least let me say goodbye to him."

"Why should I," she spit through clenched teeth, "I didn't say goodbye to Semele."

"I know," I sympathized, "and I'm sorry for that. Please, just let me say goodbye." Chrysanthe gripped the hilt of her daggers and steeled her expression. I took this as my chance to go to him.

"Come here," he said. I did as he said while keeping a close eye on Chrysanthe. I leaned close to his head and he whispered, "do you want to defy the rebels?" He said weakly. I was taken back at what he was saying. I knew he had animosity towards the rebels – they did throw us in this arena after all, but i didn't think he cared so much about it to use his final words on. With his final breath, he weakly whispered the perfect plan into my ear – the only one suitable, the way it always had to be. A cannon sounded. There were two left: Chrysanthe and I. I wouldn't allow myself to be victor; I would die here and today.

"Go on," I welcomed her, "finish this."

"Gladly!" She sneered at me as she ripped the blade out of Perseus' stomach and held it over me. In my final moments – thanks to Perseus - I had one more trick up my sleeve. At the same time she lodged the blade into my abdomen, I followed suit to her.

There would be no victor in these games; no Capitol figure to be raised up in the rebuilding of Panem. That was my final act of rebellion, my last attempt at foiling the rebels. This was an act of penance; towards my dying self, to the disappointed rebels, to every other Capitol civilian that had died innocently. This was our penance.

I had done it. I had followed Perseus' plan down to my final moments – the final act of defiance to the rebels; something no one would have the audacity to do outside the arena. I could feel death slowly creeping on me, and with my final words I shouted "I hate you Katniss Everdeen!"

**Hello my lovelies! So I've taken a hiatus from my hiatus to bring you this one-shot in honor of The Hunger Games movie being released! And for those of you who haven't seen it: BEST MOVIE OF MY LIFE!**

**For those of you who have asked, the competitions and novel writing are both going great! I'm actually at a competition right now haha! I have my laptop, and the hotel has Wi-Fi. **

**So I hope you enjoyed a small look into the mind of a Capitol citizen and seeing things from their perspective.**

**Reviews area always welcome!**

**~ Libby**


End file.
